Trident as an ultrahigh irradiance laser
The Trident Nd:glass ICF laser at Los Alamos may be operated in a mode that produces high ultrashort pulses by the chirp/compression method. The 125-ps pulses from a standard moderated, ND:YLF oscillator are first frequency-broadened to 3-nm bandwidth, chirped in a quartz fiber, and then compressed with a grating pair to 1.5 ps. A second quartz fiber then provides nonlinear polarization rotation for background and satellite suppression and to further broaden the spectrum to >7 nm. Pulses are chirped again to 1 ns width with a second grating pair and amplified in a ND:YAG pumped Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier. Millijoule-level output is then amplified through the existing phosphate glass Trident amplifier chain before compression to <400 fs. Energy {>=}1 J with excellent beam quality and contrast ratio is routinely produced by compressing after three rod amplifier stages. Higher energies are possible by compression further along the amplifier chain. Simultaneous use of long ({approximately}1 ns) pulses for plasma formation is also possible.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 10120305
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-95-41; CONF-950226-8; ON: DE95006345; TRN: 95:002236
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: SPIE `95: SPIE conference on optics, electro-optics, and laser application in science, engineering and medicine,San Jose, CA (United States),5-14 Feb 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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